Epoxy resins demonstrate good adhesion to a variety of materials to be coated, limited contraction upon curing, excellent resistance to heat, chemicals, and solvents, and excellent electrical insulatingproperties and the like. Accordingly, epoxy resins are widely used as coating materials, printing ink, and adhesives.
However, epoxy resins are brittle, and cracks occur due to thermal shock or stress-strain when cured or used.
In order to resolve these problems and to facilitate handling of the epoxy resin, a technique is known in which a diluent is employed in the epoxy resin.
Polyglycidyl ethers of aliphatic polyoyls are known for use as epoxy resin diluents. In general, they have low viscosity, with two or more epoxy groups in the molecule. Specific examples of such polyglycidyl ethers of aliphatic polyols include polyglycidyl ethers of 1,6-hexanediol, neopentylglycol, and trimethylolpropane and the like. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,348 discloses *glycidyl ethers derived from 2-butyl-2-ethyl-1,3-propanediol. However, such glycidyl ethers do not impart sufficient flexibility to the epoxy resin, and thus are not satisfactory in terms of their practical applications.